Cleveland Diesel

The Cleveland Diesel Engine Division of General Motors (GM) was a leading research, design and production facility of diesel engines from the 1930s to the 1960s that was based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Diesel Engine Division designed several 2 stroke diesel engines for submarines, tugboats, destroyer escorts, Patapsco-class gasoline tankers and other marine applications. Emergency generator sets were also built around the Cleveland Diesel and were installed in many US warships. The division was created in 1937 from the GM acquired Winton Engine Company and was folded into the Electro-Motive Diesel Division of General Motors in 1962. The engines continue in use today on older tugs.

Cleveland Diesel traces it roots to the Winton Gas Engine and Manufacturing Company which was formed by Alexander Winton an early Cleveland automobile designer in November 1912 to produce marine engines in Cleveland, Ohio. Winton chose a diesel engine design from Europe and produced the first American diesel in 1913. Renamed the Winton Engine Works in 1916 it would manufacture marine diesel engines and eventually locomotive engines. It was renamed again as the Winton Engine Company. George W. Codrington replaced Winton as the president in 1928. General Motors purchased the company in 1930 and renamed it the Winton Engine Corporation on June 20, 1930. GM changed the name in 1938 to the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division of General Motors Corporation.

The Winton Engine Corporation produced the first practical two-stroke diesel engines in the 400 to 1,200 hp (300 to 900 kW) range. They powered early Electro-Motive Corporation (another GM subsidiary) diesel locomotives and U.S. Navy submarines. In 1934 an 8-cylinder, 600-horsepower (447 kW), 8-201A diesel engine powered the first American diesel-powered train the Burlington Zephyr streamliner passenger train. The locomotive diesel manufacturing side of Winton became part of the Electro-Motive Corporation (later the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors) in 1935. The 2-stroke Winton Model 201 series engines featured Uniflow scavenging with intake ports in the cylinder walls and exhaust valves in the cylinder heads which would carry over to later Cleveland Diesel designs. They were a 60 degree opposed V type engine with mechanical injection. They were produced for rail use until late 1938 when the new lighter-weight diesel engine with more speed and flexibility had been developed and introduced as the EMC designed Model 567 series. EMD's successor is still producing locomotive engines based on the Model 567 design.